Bears Sweep Season Series Against Thunderbirds

HERSHEY, PA- The Hershey Bears erased a two-goal lead to come back with four unanswered goals to defeat the Springfield Thunderbirds 4-2 and swept the season series with the Bears taking all six games.

The Thunderbirds did not waste any time getting on the scoreboard in the first period. Rikhards Burkarts spun a pass to Graham Black and put past Bears goaltender Vitek Vanecek to go up 1-0 2:40 into the game. The Thunderbirds responded on their first power play of the game. Jared McCann and Chase Balisy worked the puck when Matt MacKenzie was going down the right side and sent a shot past Vanecek to go up 2-0.

The Bears would receive a five-minute power play after Thunderbirds forward Anthony Greco would receive a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct, but would not score during the major power play.

The Bears got on the scoreboard in the final minute of the second period. Chandler Stephenson found Stanislav Galiev and took the shot that went off of Thunderbirds goaltender Sam Brittain’s right arm and into the net to cut it to 2-1.

The Bears tied the game 6:55 into the third period. Galiev made a pass to Christian Thomas and put it in to tie the game at 2-2.

Kelly Zajac was called up from the ECHL. Zajac found the rebound and put in the game-winning goal to give the Bears a 3-2 lead. Zajac would add an empty net goal and give the Bears some insurance to seal the 4-2 victory.

The Thunderbirds next game will be this Friday when they travel to Syracuse take on the Crunch. The puck will drop at 7:00 P.M.